WSWT (106.9 FM, branded as "Mix 106.9") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

broadcasting an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, switching to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

for much of November and December. It is licensed to

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is a city in Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Illinois River, the city had a population of 113,150 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Ill ...

, and is owned by Midwest Communications, Inc. The

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single sin ...

s and offices are on Fulton Street in Peoria. WSWT has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, the current maximum for Illinois radio stations. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Grosenbach Road in

Washington, Illinois Washington is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. Washington is on U.S. Route 24 in Illinois, U.S. Route 24 and Illinois Route 8, northeast of East Peoria. The population was 16,071 at the 2020 census, ...

History

The station signed on the air in 1964 as WIRL-FM. It was the FM counterpart to WIRL

1290 AM The following radio stations Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the rad ...

. It has since changed call signs to WIVC, WUHN and then to the current WSWT. For many years, it aired a beautiful music format, calling itself "W-Sweet" to go along with its call letters. The station played quarter hour sweeps of soft, instrumental

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of popular songs. Walter Thurman was a longtime announcer at the station. Beginning in the 1980s the station gradually evolved into a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

sound and then to the more upbeat adult contemporary format that is the format today. On December 22, 2014, WSWT announced it would rebrand from "Today's Lite Rock 107" to "Mix 106.9" after

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

as part of its "New Year, New Name" campaign. That returned the heritage brand to the market for the first time since September 2007, when WXMP flipped to

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

WHPI WHPI (96.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to Farmington, Illinois, and serving the Peoria metropolitan area. Owned by Advanced Media Partners, WHPI began airing an adult hits format as "Shuffle Radio" in September 2024. History The stati ...

and rebranded as "Hippie Radio". This is the fourth incarnation for the "Mix" branding in Peoria: it originated as WMXP in 1994 on 93.3, after a seven-year absence, it resurfaced on 105.7 in 2003, and then moved to 101.1 in 2006 before the callsign and format were dropped the following year. The rebrand officially took place on the 26th. Shortly after the rebrand, the station dropped all-80s music from its weekend schedule, and shifted its non-Christmas playlist to Hot AC. On February 4, 2019, Alpha Media announced that it was selling its Peoria cluster to

Midwest Communications Midwest Communications, Inc. is a Wausau, Wisconsin–based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Il ...

for $21.6 million. The sale closed on April 30, 2019. On December 26, 2019, WSWT changed its slogan to "Your Life. Your Music.", and also adopted a new

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

. On December 29, 2023 long time morning show personality and program director Randy Rundle retired after more than 30 years at WSWT.

Previous logos

References

External links

*
"The Peoria Plague" on Archive.org — a radio drama that aired on the station in the early 1970s
SWT Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1965 Midwest Communications radio stations {{Illinois-radio-station-stub